Bioenergy Research Institute, Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW, Australia.
Plant Biotechnol J. 2010 Apr;8(3):288-93. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7652.2009.00482.x. Epub 2010 Jan 8.
The potential of plants to replace fossil oil was evaluated by considering the scale of production required, the area of land needed and the types of plants available. High yielding crops (50 tonnes/ha) that have a high conversion efficiency (75%) would require a global land footprint of around 100 million ha to replace current (2008) oil consumption. Lower yielding or less convertible plants would require a larger land footprint. Domestication of new species as dedicated energy crops may be necessary. A systematic analysis of higher plants and their current and potential uses is presented. Plant biotechnology provides tools to improve the prospects of replacing oil with plant-derived biomass by increasing the amount of biomass produced per unit area of land and improving the composition of the biomass to increase the efficiency of conversion to biofuel and biomaterials. Options for the production of high value coproducts and the expression of processing aids such as enzymes in the plant may add further value to plants as bioenergy resources.
通过考虑所需的生产规模、所需的土地面积和可用植物的类型，评估了植物替代石油的潜力。高产量作物（50 吨/公顷）具有高转化率（75%），将需要全球约 1 亿公顷的土地足迹来替代当前（2008 年）的石油消耗。产量较低或转化率较低的植物将需要更大的土地足迹。可能需要驯化新的专门用作能源作物的物种。本文对高等植物及其当前和潜在用途进行了系统分析。植物生物技术提供了通过增加单位土地面积的生物质产量和改善生物质的组成来提高用植物衍生的生物质替代石油的前景的工具，以提高生物燃料和生物材料转化的效率。在植物中生产高附加值副产物和表达加工助剂（如酶）的选择可以为植物作为生物能源资源进一步增加价值。
